title: Multiple sclerosis: a geographical hypothesis.
abstract: Multiple sclerosis remains a rare neurological disease of unknown aetiology, with a unique distribution, both geographically and historically. Rare in equatorial regions, it becomes increasingly common in higher latitudes; historically, it was first clinically recognized in the early nineteenth century. A hypothesis, based on geographical reasoning, is here proposed: that the disease is the result of a specific vitamin deficiency. Different individuals suffer the deficiency in separate and often unique ways. Evidence to support the hypothesis exists in cultural considerations, in the global distribution of the disease, and in its historical prevalence.
authors.forename: I P
authors.initials: IP
authors.lastname: Carlyle
mesh_terms: D002980:Climate; D003677:Deficiency Diseases / Q000150:complications; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D005843:Geography; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008954:Models, Biological; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000266:history / Q000401:mortality; D015995:Prevalence